Friday, April 10, 2015

I rarely drive, I prefer being the passenger when Chris and I go out. So when I do drive, it's usually alone, for a work meeting or running errands. It's not a common thing for me to have passengers, unless I'm taking the boys for haircuts......Anyway...The route that goes down our street goes pass the big bus terminal then leads a good cpl miles all along the river to home. I so often picked Cleo​ up from there to bring her home when she had a break from school in Montreal. She would jump in the car and just start to rattle off all the things she had to tell me about. This professor or that project...Who she had met lately and what was new .... OR.... We would Crank up the Heavy Metal and enjoy the ride till we got home LOL...Those were really the only times I was driving while someone else was actually in the car with me....On that route home from the bus...it was always with Cleo...As I was coming home from my work meeting today, going down that route realizing it had been a long time since I had............It hit me that she was missing beside me , rattling on like she should be...It was so hard.. and harder still knowing it will never happen again...that ride home with Cleo from the bus terminal...As tears streamed down my face, I cranked up DISTURBED and looked at the river. Then noticed it had this weird fog or mist floating around it...It was almost 5pm....An odd time for a fog or mist...So I turned down a side road to an empty park flanking the river. Although I didn't have my Canon I still wanted to try and get a few photos of the cool mist in the air with the iPhone. Clearing my head surrounded by some nature seemed like a really good idea at the time as well. These photos certainly don't do justice to my surrounding but being there to take them , along with some deep breaths helped me today. Click photos to view larger .

Sunday, January 04, 2015

I'm always puttering with something. Inventing or improving on ideas that rattle around in my head. So the other day, I was putting a gift together. It consisted of many little things. Small bottles & containers of things like Headache Oil, Antiseptic Ointment, better Vapo-Rub, Lip Balm etc..All these are made by me. My conundrum was that they could easily get lost, or end up here and there, and not used for that very reason. So I started looking around my things for a small bag of sorts to hold all these conveniently together...
So as I rifled through a drawer of scraps, I found some jean pockets I had cut of a pair ..and the wheels started to turn...and an idea was born...

Bare in mind most projects I do HAVE TO BE SIMPLE...If things become too complicated I usually won't bother OR look for ways to simplify.

I first started with this....2 Jean pockets I just sewed together ..Making it a compact 3 pocket bag of sorts. With a fabric ribbon sewed on so one could hang or loop through a belt or attach to anything.

So once this was done I thought I could do better....I had a pair of cargo pants that Chris never wore put aside...and remembered all the great pockets they had....So I had some fun cutting them up! These pants got me 6 pockets!! ...

These light weight cargo pants are perfect for this idea...These had 6 pockets. So I decided to keep some of the elastic waist band for a cpl of these bags...again ...It has to be easy...

Once cut out, you can do whatever you want. Just cut around edges and sew them as you like...

I paired the pockets as I wanted. Right sides together...You can see the dark pen marks to show where I plan to sew...I also kept the belt that was sewed into the pants. I cut and sewed pieces of the belt to make a loop for each...

Voila, 3 different bags...that you can put anything in! Each of these pockets had an outer pocket on them so essentially, each of these bags have the deep inside pocket, and another Velcro bag on the outside of each bag also...plus another tiny one on the other one...(Yes, cargo pants make for the best pockets!) The smallest of the 3 has 5 pockets in all! This is why I did this in the first place and called them Pocket Pharmacy...All the stuff below fits easily into this bag including the small box of Band-Aids ....with lot's of room for more ..

This one didn't have the waist band on it so I sewed a small Velcro squares on the inside so one can close it ...You can also see the 2 additional pockets on the outside ...

So here you have My Pocket Pharmacy

Everything in one convenient spot ...made from pockets taken off discarded pants!